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Founded | 15 September 1965 | ||||||
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Commenced operations | 1970 | ||||||
Ceased operations | 1976 | ||||||
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Air Siam was an airline based in Thailand which operated from 1965 until 1976.
The airline was established as Varan Air-Siam on 15 September 1965 by Prince Varanand, who was the major shareholder at the time.[2] Operations started in 1970 using Douglas DC-4 equipment, initially flying the Bangkok−Hong Kong route as a freighter service.[2] Following an agreement with Overseas National Airways for the wet-lease of a Douglas DC-8-63 and operational assistance from Trans World Airlines,[3][4] scheduled passenger services started in March 1971 serving Bangkok, Honolulu, Tokyo and Los Angeles.[2] All these services were suspended in January 1972 ; the Bangkok–Hong Kong sector was reactivated in May the same year with a leased BAC One-Eleven and extended to Tokyo seven months later, in December 1972 , operated with a Boeing 707.[2]
In April 1974Airbus A300s,[5] one A300B2 and one A300B4, taking an option for one more of the longer-range variant.[6] After taking delivery of the first of these aircraft on a lease basis from Airbus in October 1974 , Air Siam became the second operator worldwide in deploying the type on scheduled services, after Air France.[7]: 590 Also in 1974, the company placed an order for a Douglas DC-10-30, to be used on the Bangkok–Los Angeles route.[8] Rights for the routes the airline intended to deploy the A300s on were never granted, and the A300B2 was returned to the lessor just a year after it was incorporated into the fleet.[9]
, the carrier placed an order for twoBefore Air Siam started flying long-haul services, Thailand's flag carrier Thai International was the country's single long-haul operator.[10] Already in 1974, the airline had accused both Thai International and the Thai Civil Aeronautics Board for obstructing their expansion plans.[11] Despite various different Thai governments considering the possibility of a merger, this never materialised.[10] A new government taking office in 1976 had a different vision and decided that Thailand should have just one long-haul carrier.[10]: 1564
Throughout its history, the airline served the following destinations:[12]
Following is a list of aircraft operated by Air Siam all through its history:[13]